Called
the Eighth Wonder of the World in its time, this bridge joining Brooklyn
and Manhatan was designed by John A. Roebling and built by his son
Washington A. Roebling, whose
wife acted as his intermediary while he lay
paralyzed during the twelve years it took to complete it. Two people were
trampled to death in the crowd that rushed to cross the bridge when it first
opened in l883. Almost from that year on "buying the Brooklyn Bridge" has
become a phrase symbolizing gullibility - though it is doubtful that any con
man ever really sold it to anyone.